Andruszczenko, Uliana [Уляна Андрущенко] –
teacher, active figure in community affairs; born on 4 July 1898 in a
smallholding near Zaporizhia (Ukraine; at that time – Oleksandrivsk,
Katerynoslav gubernia, Russian Empire); died on 28 February 1986 in Derby,
England, United Kingom; buried in Leicester.

As a child Andruszczenko lived in the village of Kapulivka
(Dnipropetrovsk oblast), where she attended primary school. She acquired
an interest in archaeology while observing excavations being undertaken
in the village by the historian Dmytro Yavornytskyi. In 1917 she
graduated from a gymnasium
secondary school in Zaporizhia. Then she enrolled at the
University of Katerynoslav (now the city of Dnipro), but her studies
were interrupted by the revolutionary events unfolding in Ukraine. Later
she graduated from a teacher training college and worked until 1941 as a
teacher in Kryvyi Rih. During the Second World War she left
Central
Ukraine and lived for a time in
Western Ukraine. Travelling between
various parts of the region she enhanced her knowledge of Ukrainian folk
embroidery, in which she first became interested as a child. As the
German-Soviet front line advanced she left for Prague, and then reached
Germany. There she lived in displaced persons camps, including in
Regensburg where she was active in the Union of Ukrainian Women in
Emigration.

In 1948 Andruszczenko moved to the United Kingdom. She lived initially in
Ludlow, and then in Kidderminster, where she worked in a carpet factory
until her retirement. She subsequently moved to Leicester where she
became active in the local branch of the Association of Ukrainian Women
in Great Britain (AUW). In the years 1960-64 and 1966-73 she was a
member of the AUW executive committee: deputy chair of the Association for two terms (1990-61 and
1963-64), and committee member responsible for promoting folk arts in
the other years. In
1964-66 she was head of the AUW financial oversight committee. She
played a major role in the popularisation of Ukrainian folk arts,
especially embroidery, among Ukrainians in Great Britain, conducting
embroidery courses and competitions, organising exhibitions and giving
lectures in local communities around the country. In Leicester she
established a collection of artefacts, on the basis of which a museum
was opened in 1964 under the auspices of the AUW executive committee
(transferred to Manchester in 1971 and named the Alla Horska Museum). In
1963 she became a member of the newly-formed Curatorial Board of the
Taras Shevchenko Library and Museum (now the Shevchenko Library and
Archive) and was elected to the Board’s executive committee. For two
years she was a member of the executive committee of the Association of
Ukrainian Teachers in Great Britain. She was also active in the
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Great Britain. From September
1972 until almost the end of her life she lived at the Kobzarivka
residential home near Derby, run by the Association of Ukrainians in
Great Britain.